As per the statement, the MHA provided that “The process of granting citizenship certificates under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 has now commenced in the state of West Bengal, where the first set of applications from the State were today granted citizenship by the Empowered Committee, West Bengal. Similarly, the Empowered Committees of the states of Haryana and Uttarakhand have also granted citizenship today to the first set of applicants in their respective States, under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.”

It is to be noted that the number of people to whom the citizenship certificates were granted have not been mentioned. As per a report of the Hindu, a source had provided that at least eight Hindu migrants from Bangladesh were granted citizenship in West Bengal. It is crucial to highlight here that in the upcoming seventh phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections on June 1, which is also going to be the last phase, votes will be casted in at least nine constituencies of the state of West Bengal. These parliamentary constituencies are Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin, Kolkata Uttar.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee have ardently been opposing the CAA a, according to her, it curtails constitutional rights of the people and promotes religion-based discrimination. The union government, and especially Union home minister Amit Shah, had on multiple occasions asserted that CM Mamata Banerjee won’t be able to stop the BJP government from implementing CAA in West Bengal.

This is the second time that the MHA has granted citizenship to a group of eligible candidates since the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 were notified on March 11, 2024. Prior to this, on May 15, a press release by the MHA had provided that the first set of citizenship certificates under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was issued to more than 300 people. A total of 14 people were physically handed over the certificates. Previously too, the country of origin of the applicants was not made known in the press release. The report of The Hindu had provided that a government source had suggested that most applicants were Pakistani Hindus.

The Rules grant the final authority to accord citizenship to an empowered committee headed by a Director, Census Operations. The scrutiny of applications filed online on indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in was done by a district-level committee (DLC) headed by postal department officials. The Rules say that the applicants must provide any of nine specified documents tracing their roots to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. On successful verification of documents, the DLCs administered the oath of allegiance to the applicants. The portal is said to have received more than 25,000 applications so far.

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The post MHA grants citizenship to applicants from West Bengal, Haryana, Uttarakhand; number of those granted citizenship not revealed appeared first on SabrangIndia.

It is essential to note that the ministry has also specified that many other applicants are being given digitally signed certificates through email. As per the Hindu, more than 300 people who applied under the CAA have been granted citizenship. While the country of origin of the applicants was not made known in the press release, the report of The Hindu provided that a government source had suggested that most applicants were Pakistani Hindus.

As per media reports, while disbursing the certificates, Mr. Bhalla highlighted the salient features of the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024, through which the implementation of the CAA was ensured. The Rules grant the final authority to accord citizenship to an empowered committee headed by the Director, Census Operations, while the scrutiny of applications filed online on the portal indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in was done by a district level committee (DLC) headed by Department of Post officials. On successful verification of documents, the DLCs administered the oath of allegiance to the applicants. The portal is said to have received over 25,000 applications so far, as provided by The Hindu. The Secretary, Posts; the Director, Intelligence Bureau; the Registrar General of India, and senior officers were also present during the interactive session.

The press release by the MHA can be read here:

Related:

Kolkata man commits suicide, family claims CAA rules led him to it

CAA: An attempt to legitimise expansionist nationalism

CAA disregards India’s inclusive plural ethos, ‘betrays’ ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Government notifies CAA regulations, opposition decries it as a means to polarise voters

The post First set of citizenship certificates issued to over 300 under CAA: MHA appeared first on SabrangIndia.

However, a law which took birth and become a reality within 4 days (December 9 to 12) was kept in convenient cold storage for 4 years and 9 months without being notified. It was enforced on March 11, 2024 when the 2024 parliamentary elections are few weeks away. The plight of the persecuted non-Muslim minorities in India’s neighbourhood was abandoned for close to five years and then resurrected only when PM Modi needed this polarizing law to push his electoral advantage.

It does not take much to understand that this is likely the first step in the direction of bringing in a more monstrous law for scrutinizing citizenship of all existing Indian citizens. The NRC-NPR exercise is going to play havoc with crores of Indians specially the marginalised migrant worker, Adivasi, Dalit, Farmer and Muslims.
Let us examine defence of enforcing The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 or CAA by the RSS-BJP regime.

(1) CAA 2019 –an attempts to bury India’s Constitution

Shah while piloting the Bill in Lok Sabha had declared that it was in accordance with the Indian Constitution as “the Constitution is our religion.” PM who abstained from the House due to an election engagement in Jharkhand reposed full faith in Amit Shah by declaring that “This bill is in line with India’s centuries old ethos of assimilation and belief in humanitarian values”.

These were shamefaced statements. This Act, first of its kind in independent India, sanctions a blatant violation of the secular Constitution of India. Secularism has been declared as one of the ‘basic’ structures by the Supreme Court of India. Hindutva rulers claim that it was an amendment to the existing citizenship law, Citizenship Act of 1955. However, it is in total disregard of the 1955 Act under which Indian citizenship could be acquired by birth, descent, registration, naturalization or incorporation of territory. Thus the CAA also violates the equality and non-discriminatory character of the Indian Constitution which was declared to be one of the four inviolable pillars of the polity.

(2) It is part of global anti-Muslim polarising agenda of RSS

Amit Shah while presenting this bill declared that it was not against minorities. According to him, “under PM Narendra Modi no minority needs to be afraid”. He seemed to be a large hearted home minister who would welcome all “Those who come here due to persecution, to save their religion and honour of the women of their family…” [Ibid] The “benevolent” Amit Shah argued “If minorities are getting persecuted in neighbouring countries, we cannot be mute spectators. We have to ensure their safety and dignity”.

However, this claim is absolutely hollow like any other claim of his when we go through the Act. Persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh are welcome but persecuted Muslims like Shias, Ahmedyas and Sufis not eligible for this offer. According to RSS/BJP rulers persecuted Muslims were not considered because they did not constitute a minority but were all Muslims. Even illiterates know that in the three countries these above mentioned sects have been declared as non-Muslims. So were Rohingyas abandoned. Worst of all Tamils in Sri Lanka, clearly persecuted find no protection in this new law.

Amit Shah highly worried about religious persecution in three Muslim countries is not bothered about the persecution of Muslim rationalist, liberal and atheist writers, poets, bloggers and activists who in hundreds have been killed by religious vigilante groups in these countries. Over decades India has been denouncing the ethnic cleansing of Baloch nationalists. Thousands of them have been killed by the Pakistani armed forces and hundreds remain missing. Since they are Muslims they will not be welcome despite their continuous ethnic cleansing by the Pakistan Army!

And what about persecuted Uyghur Muslim minority in China? According to a UN committee more than one million Uyghur Muslims and other Muslim groups had been detained in concentration camps in the western Xinjiang region, where they were said to be undergoing “re-education” programmes. Recently, US Congress overwhelmingly approved a bill aimed at pressuring China over a brutal mass crackdown on ethnic Muslims in the far west of the country.

Amit Shah’s argument for not allowing persecuted Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan is that they are not minorities in their respective countries. But persecuted Uyghur Muslims are a religious minority in China. Denial to take refuge to them under the CAA 2019 only shows hatred for Muslims and kowtowing to the Chinese rulers.

Tragedy is soon to unfold for Afghans who in hundreds, many of them women, migrated to India due to excesses of Talibaans. Since CAA has been notified all these Afghan refugees are going to be forced back into a theocratic Afghanistan ruled by the Talibaan.

(3) Farcical love for persecuted Christians

The love for Christians in the neighbouring countries is more puzzling as after Muslims, this community has faced the maximum violence at the hands of RSS goons in India. Modi started his first term as PM of India on May 26, 2014. One of the first decisions he made was about celebrating December 25, (X-MAS) as ‘good-governance day’ every year. It continues till date.

What fate awaited Christians in India was made clear by one of the most decorated police officers of India, Julio Ribeiro, on completion of almost nine months of Modi’s government, in the following words: “Today, in my 86th year, I feel threatened, not wanted, reduced to a stranger in my own country.  The same category of citizens who had put their trust in me to rescue them from a force they could not comprehend have now come out of the woodwork to condemn me for practising a religion that is different from theirs. I am not an Indian anymore, at least in the eyes of the proponents of the Hindu Rashtra.

“Is it coincidence or a well-thought-out plan that the systematic targeting of a small and peaceful community should begin only after the BJP government of Narendra Modi came to power last May? ‘Ghar wapsi’, the declaration of Christmas as ‘Good Governance Day’, the attack on Christian churches and schools in Delhi, all added to a sense of siege that now afflicts these peaceful people.”

Such attacks on Christians and their religious-educational institutions have since taken a pan-Indian diabolic character.

The most prominent ideologue of RSS declared Indian Christians as ‘Internal threat number 2’ after Muslims who were declared as ‘Internal threat number 1’. [MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 193.]

How much Christians are loved by Amit Shah was made clear when Indian Parliament passed the 104^th Constitutional Act in 2019 itself. It did away with the nomination of Anglo-Indian members to the Lok Sabha and state legislatures from January 25, 2020. Nomination to Anglo-Indians was provisioned in the Constitution in order to give representation to a section of Christians who were incapable of getting elected any member of their community due to small number. In fact, despite this provision in force in the 17th Lok Sabha the Modi government did not nominate any member from the Anglo-Indian community to the House. The regime which is bothered about the persecution of Christians across the borders is working over-time to deprive them of all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

(4) Love for Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists who are decreed as Hindus in India by RSS

RSS-BJP rulers love for Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan is puzzling. BJP rulers as members of RSS do not accord the status of independent religion to the above mentioned religions.

The most prominent ideologue of RSS, Guru Golwalkar declared that Hindus should not be divided into Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains, “the Buddhists, the Jain, the Sikh are all included in that one comprehensive word ‘Hindu'”. [MS Golwalkar, The Spotlights, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1974, p. 171.]

(5) Mysterious cut-off date

The cut-off date for seeking refuge in India by the persecuted communities has been fixed on or before December 31, 2014. This means (or implies) that there has been no persecution of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis in the three countries after December 31, 2014. It only shows complete disregard of the present reality in India’s neighbourhood. The cut-off date was tailor made to assuage the mounting anger of more than fifteen lakh Hindus who have been declared foreigners in Assam. But it has opened the old wounds in Assam where organisations fighting for the Assamese identity have risen in revolt against CAA.

(6) Persecuted Tamil Hindus of Sri Lanka left in the lurch

CAA is silent on Sri Lanka where large scale massacre of Hindu Tamilians took place. The fascist Buddhist organizations in Sri Lanka have been demanding Sri Lanka for Sinhalese Buddhists only. Amit Shah and his Hindutva government have brazenly betrayed the persecuted Hindu Tamilians of Sri Lanka who were forced to migrate to India during the civil war or still facing persecution there. More than 150000 (one and half lakh) are languishing in miserable camps with no rights. Shockingly, CAA sacrifices safety of even Hindus in the neighbourhood.

(7) Persecuted minorities and ethnic groups in Myanmar left to die

The Indian home ministry under Amit Shah has ordered a 1643-kilometre long fence to be erected on the India-Myanmar border. This is being done to stop the religious minorities and ethnic groups like the Rohingya people, Kachins (The Baptists) and the Arakan Army which are facing brutal persecution of the Military rulers from coming through. Since they took refuge in India to save themselves from the killing gangs of the Myanmar Army now with this fence they would be at the mercy of Myanmar rulers.

(8) Amit Shah’s hypocrisy on ‘one nation, one legislation’

RSS/BJP rulers have been pro-active on the demand that India is one nation and should have one law on each issue. Interestingly, prior to the CAA 2019, India had one single citizenship law but with the enforcement of CAA India would have multiple citizenship laws. This amendment to the CAA exempts the whole of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram, almost the whole of Meghalaya, and parts of Assam and Tripura, but keeps all of Manipur under its ambit which may also be made an exception. Thus citizenship will be governed by plethora of laws bidding good-bye to the goal of ‘one nation, one legislation’.

(9) CAA 2019 was scripted by the ‘Guru of Hate’, Golwalkar in 1939

CAA 2019 is the resurrection of what the most important ideologue of RSS, Golwalkar decreed in his 1939 book We or Our Nationhood Defined about the character of Indian nation. According to him it was, it is and will remain an exclusive Hindu nation. The reality is that it is not only against the minorities but against democratic-secular Constitution of India.  The RSS has been allergic to the idea of an all-inclusive India since its birth in 1925.

Golwalkar declared that in, “Hindusthan, the land of the Hindus, lives and should live the Hindu Nation…Consequently only those movements are truly ‘National’ as aim at rebuilding, re-vitalizing and emancipating from its present stupor, the Hindu Notion”.  [MS Golwalkar, We or Our Nationhood Defined, Bharat Publication, Nagpur, 1939, p. 43]

He went to the extent of declaring that all those who did not believe in establishing the Hindu nation “are either traitors and enemies to the National cause, or, to take a charitable view, idiots”. [MS Golwalkar, We or Our Nationhood Defined, Bharat Publication, Nagpur, 1939, p. 44.]

It is important to note that even when CAA 2019 had not been enacted, India under the stewardship of the visionary PM Nehru had allowed refuge to likes of Dalai Lama with his retinue (April 1959). At the end of 1970s thousands of East Pakistanis who were persecuted by Islamists and Pakistan army were provided shelter in India. CAA 2019 is nothing but a ploy of RSS/BJP rulers led by diehard Hindu nationalists like Modi and Amit Shah to convert democratic-secular India into a Hindutva theocracy. It was facilitated by a capitulated Parliament.

The Indian judiciary, specially the Supreme Court could have averted this tragedy by timely intervention. But despite more than 150 petitions challenging the constitutionality of the CAA pending before the highest court of justice since 2020 it continues to dither from hearing the petitions.

The only hope now is that the people of India will peacefully resist this undoing of democratic-secular India.

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The post Anti-constitutional, bereft of humanity & religiously bigoted: CAA 2019 is now enforced in India appeared first on SabrangIndia.

“Around 50 Aadhaar cards have been rejected in Burdwan’s Jamalpur. Similar things are happening in Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, Burdwan and several other districts,” Banerjee said while speaking at a programme in Birbhum.

Banerjee, was also warning people against the CAA. She said, “During elections, you (BJP) are shouting for CAA. Once Aadhaar cards of people get rejected, bank accounts will get delinked and you will not get back your citizenship before five years. You are already citizens of this country.”

She warned the populace to stay away from the “citizenship trap”, saying everyone is already a citizen of the country and has Aadhaar cards, voter identity and ration cards. “Now, if Aadhaar cards get rejected, people will not get money in their bank accounts from the state in various state-run schemes. This is the ploy of the Centre to stop our funds reaching the common people,” Banerjee said while expressing her apprehensions. She directed the administration to create a portal where people, whose Aadhaar cards have been rejected, can register. “We will look into the matter and the administration will take necessary steps. We will send the money to the beneficiaries at any cost,” she asserted.

Aadhar De-Activation

CJP received several panic calls from West Bengal on Saturday, February 17 when about 60 persons from Jamalpur in Burdwan district reported that their Aadhar cards had been unilaterally, without notice been de-activated. This action was reported by the Sanmarg portal and was taken by the Ranchi branch of the UIDAI on Jamalpur block In Burdwan.

The portal reports that as many as 50 residents of the Jamalpur block’s Abujhati Gram Panchayat have received such letters as also Jogram. This de-activation would seriously affect rations, banking access etc. The letters reportedly stated that it is as per Rule 28 that the de-activation has taken place. The fact that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had made an announcement on “implementing CAA before the elections” has doubled citizens’ concerns.

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Thakur is, however, not the only Bengal BJP MP who has brought up the CAA – first introduced in 2019 to countrywide protests but since kept dormant by the Narendra Modi government – recently. Nisith Pramanik also mentioned that the law would be implemented soon.

The CAA offers an accelerated-track path to citizenship for non-Muslim religious minorities (Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists, and Christians) from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, who entered India before December 31, 2014. This amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955 was passed in the midst pf nationwide protests and controversy in December 2019.

Now, Thakur has clarified that he meant that the rules for the Act would be “framed within seven days.”

The All India Matua Mahasangha chief was reportedly pulled up by the BJP high command for claiming on January 28 that the CAA would be implemented in seven days, “not only in Bengal but across the country.” Thakur was speaking in Kulpi in south Bengal then.

Clearly the BJP is caught between two rival support bases when it comes to the CAA – one which is the Rajbanshi community which is strongly opposed to it and the other which is the Matua community which wants it. Rajbanshis also present in next door Assam have been victims of being rendered citizenship-less over the past five years.

The Telegraph report quoted Thakur as having said last Saturday, February 3, that he “actually wanted to say that the process of framing the citizenship rules would be completed within a week.”

“But by a slip of the tongue, I said the CAA would be implemented within a week, I didn’t mean it,” Thakur added.

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CAA rules to be framed by March 2024, says Union Minister

The post ‘Slip of Tongue,’ now says BJP MP who had promised CAA in 7 Days appeared first on SabrangIndia.

At the age of 34, Sharjeel Imam, who is currently a research scholar at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University is from Kako, a village in Bihar’s Jehanabad district. Imam studied his BTech at the Indian Institutes of Technology, Bombay and went on to serve as a Teaching Assistant at the same institute, following which he worked as a programmer in Copenhagen. Imam decided to further his education and in 2013, he enrolled in a Master’s program in Modern History at JNU after which he undertook an M.Phil. Programme in Modern Indian History, and a PhD. His MPhil thesis was titled ‘Exodus before Partition: The Attack on Muslims of Bihar in 1946.’

In December, during an anti-CAA protest at Jantar Mantar, Imam delivered a speech characterising the CAA as an assault on Muslim citizens of India. Furthermore, he advocated for a Chakka Jaam, arguing it was a well-tested means of democratic protest around the world to bring the attention of the authorities to address public demands.

Later, the Delhi Police used one of Imam’s speeches promoting the Chakka Jaam as evidence to file a case against him. They have accused him of aiding the February 2020 Delhi pogrom which saw over 40 people, mostly Muslims, killed in north-east Delhi.

Charges of sedition were levelled against Sharjeel Imam following the widespread dissemination of a two-minute excerpt from his speech at Aligarh Muslim University on January 16. This snippet was broadcasted by right-wing news channels and extensively shared on social media platforms on January 24, including a segment on Arnab Goswami’s Republic World. Right-wing media outlets interpreted the clip out of context and tried to portray him as an Islamic fundamentalist, subjecting him to a media trial. While in prison, like many other prisoners, he contracted COVID-19 in 2020. To which he stated, in an interview to Ajaz Ashraf, “My fear was not that I would die without meeting my family. It was rather that I would not be able to prove that I am not a terrorist.”

According to a report by The Wire, Imam has eight cases registered against him out of which he has been given bail 5 of them. For one of the remaining cases, he has never been arrested, and the other remaining cases are of the UAPA. According to the same report, Imam’s brother, Muzammil Imam, has stated that his bail plea has been listed about 46 times in the courts in the past four years.

Court Proceedings

Five Indian states namely Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Delhi had taken legal action against Imam. Assam Police registered an FIR citing UAPA and IPC sections. The same day, Aligarh Police in Uttar Pradesh charged Imam with sedition. Manipur Police filed an FIR for offences like waging war, sedition, and vilification. Arunachal Pradesh’s Itanagar police filed an FIR for sedition and promoting enmity and Delhi Police filed an FIR for sedition and promoting religious enmity.

In November 2021, Imam was granted bail by Allahabad High Court for his AMU speech. The court stated that his speech did not amount to calling for violence. He was granted bail by a single bench comprising Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh sections 124 A (sedition), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) as well as a few other sections of the IPC.

In March 2022, Delhi High Court issued notice on his bail plea, noting that sedition required call to violence, “why should he not be granted bail?”. However, the Delhi High Court set aside a trial court’s order, to discharge Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha and eight others in the Jamia violence case.

In September 2022, Imam was granted bail by a Delhi court for allegedly making inflammatory speeches during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in 2019. He was granted bail under the Code of Criminal Procedure’s Section 436A. The provision details bail for a person who has gone through detention for up to one-half of the maximum sentence specified for an offence during the trial period.

In November 2023, the judge presiding over the case was discharged and it was decided that the bail plea for the case would be heard afresh.

In January, 2024, the High Court directed the Delhi police to ask why Sharjeel Imam can’t be treated equally with those granted bail. As of now, Ishrat Jahan, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita have been granted bail in the case in 2021. The Delhi police has responded that it is for Imam to convince the court, and not up to the prosecution.

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The post Four years behind bars, Sharjeel Imam still waits for a fair trial appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This appears to be a design to whip up social tensions around the controversial 2019 amendment to the citizenship law that has little to do with Indian citizens and more to do with discriminatory citizenship (allowing non-Muslims from neighbouring countries to get fast-tracked citizenship).

“You will get the full rights of citizenship. In the absence of proper documents, no action can be initiated against you. This we have included in the Act,” the Minister told the gathering.  As per his latest information, the Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation in the Lok Sabha had fixed time till January 9, 2024 while the committee in the Rajya Sabha had fixed a time of March 30, 2024 for framing the CAA rules.

The union minister’s remarks assume significance ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The delay of framing CAA rules had irked a section of Matuas, including even the MLAs from the community representing the BJP. After the 2019 polls, a number of BJP leaders have been trying to allay the fears of Matuas regarding delay in the implementation of the CAA. Earlier this year, the Home Ministry was granted an extension for the seventh time to frame the rules for the CAA.

“We are hopeful that the rules of the CAA will be framed by then. In case there are issues, some more time may be required. The CAA has been implemented in the country. It is the promise and commitment of the Government of India to provide [you] citizenship,” Mr. Mishra said. He was joined by Minister of State for Shipping and Bongaon BJP MP Santanu Thakur at the event.

Thakur, a descendent of the founders of Matua sect, had won the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Bongaon on the promise of providing citizenship to the members of the community. Matuas, a community comprising Hindu Namasudras, many of whom have migrated from Bangladesh (East Pakistan earlier), will be the deciding factor in large parts of south Bengal during the coming Lok Sabha polls and the issue of rules of the CAA remains crucial to their support.

The Trinamool Congress leadership, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been claiming that the CAA was a farce as everyone residing in the State was a citizen.

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Union Home Ministry seeks further six months to frame CAA rules, has implementation however begun?

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The post CAA rules to be framed by March 2024, says Union Minister appeared first on SabrangIndia.

It is pertinent to note that linking the registry of birth and death to Aadhar card has also been proposed by the government in the past. IN November 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs floated proposed amendments to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 which entailed a national database of records of births and deaths and linking Aadhar information to the same. The MHA had also expressed its intent to use this data to update the much opposed National Population Register (NPR). The Ministry had stated that the data will be used for updating NPR, Electoral Registers, Aadhar Database, Ration card database, Passport Database as well as the driving license database.

The Ministry has started again from where it left things in November 2021. At the inaugural event, Shah said that registration of births and deaths is important for updating citizens’ register, electoral rolls and list of people who avail beneficiary schemes, reported The Hindu.

What about the Census?

The description sounds quite similar to what a Census is supposed to be. 2021 was the year when our Census was due. However, the same could not be held on time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with the pandemic long behind us, there is absolute silence from the government on when the Census will be conducted. The general elections are due for 2024 and the Union government has shown no political intent to conduct Census anytime before that.

Under the Census Act, there is no mandate or obligation upon the Union government to conduct Census every 10 years. The section 3 of the Act states:

3. Central Government to take census.—The Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare its intention of taking a census in the whole or any part of the territories to which this Act extends, whenever it may consider it necessary or desirable to do so, and there upon the census shall be taken.

Shah did say during the event that previous censuses were not accurate and the government will now conduct the Census electronically so that the data can be audited and verified, reported The Hindu.

What the government plans to do

Shah has said that the Registrar General of India will be the authority for birth and death registration. The RGI is the nodal agency for Census and also implements Registration of Births and Deaths Act. Shah said that the RGI “will ensure that the Election Commission is informed by the related software, immediately after the death of a voter, and the due process to strike off his or her name can be adopted. The opposite can be done to include a new voter in the voter list as soon as he or she becomes 18 years old.”

A source from the government speaking to Hindustan Times disclosed, “The proposed amendments say that the birth and death registration data will be necessary for admission into educational institutions, issuance of driving license, preparation of voter list, registration of marriage, appointment in government jobs and for passports etc.”

Why is centralization of this data a problem?

The Centre has clearly stated that this data will be used for updating NPR, Electoral Registers, Aadhar Database, Ration card database, Passport Database as well as the driving license database. This means, the Centre will be able to track births, deaths,

The Centre will have a record of all the registered deaths and will use the same to update NPR which will in turn be used to make the nation wide NRC. However, the question arises, what about those births that are not registered?

Citizen for Justice and Peace’s experience working on the citizenship issue in Assam has led to the realization that out of people excluded from NRC, vast numbers were children because the parents could not provide their birth certificates. Children below 18 do not have voter’s ID cards and if they have not given class 10 or 12 board examination their only proof of birth in the country is the birth certificate and if the infrastructure for registering births is not robust in rural or remote areas, it is likely that a large chunk of population does not exist on paper for the government and there is no way for them to prove that they were indeed born in this country. Hence, if this data is centralized and used to update NPR and eventually the NRC, this population has no strong proof of citizenship and stands at the risk of becoming non-citizens or aliens in the country they were born in. This, in itself, is a potential grave humanitarian crisis.

Based on information received from 32 States/UTs, the share of institutional births to total registered births is 81.2 percent. This means that despite institutional births, there are loopholes whereby registration of births has been missed out.

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The post New Bill to link birth and death registry with Electoral rolls in next Session: Amit Shah appeared first on SabrangIndia.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hit back at the Centre for using verification of Aadhar as a means of implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal. She has categorically refused to comply with the same.

This is in reference to the letter sent by the Central government to eight states including West Bengal instructing them to identify illegal Aadhaar cards and those people who do not have Aadhaar cards. The letter also specifies the areas where this exercise should be carried out. In Bengal, the Centre has identified the areas of North-and South-24 Parganas for implementing these checks. Banerjee said that the government was reviving the citizenship overdrive ahead of the General Election next year.

She was addressing a press conference when she said, ““I am directed to refer to ongoing exercise for verification/updation of illegal Aadhaar cards in the selected districts and to forward a list of the specific location of exact pockets of settlements of illegal foreigners in those selected districts to enable UIDAI to be more focussed in the exercise for the elimination of illegal Aadhaar cards.”

The letter was sent to the chief executive officer of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) from an under-secretary in the Union home ministry, reported The Telegraph.

As per Census 2011 data, South 24 Parganas has 35.57% Muslim population while North 24 Paragans has 25.82% Muslim population. Banerjee further said, “They want to eliminate a particular community from their rights of citizenship through this drive. The plot is to declare all those people ‘foreigners’ if their Aadhaar card is detected as illegal with any lack (of information). It means they are again playing with the NRC card”.

They have also mentioned specific areas in South24 Parganas namely Baruipur, Canning, Sonarpur and Malikpur; also Barasat, Hasnabad, Bongaon, Petrapole, Barrackpore, Naihati, Jagatdal and Khardaha in North 24-Parganas.

“I am not going to take part in the NRC-like exercise. I will not allow them to play with the NRC card here. I think that all who live in Bengal are already citizens of our country,” she added, as reported by The Telegraph.

The nexus of CAA-NRC-NPR is not a figment of Banerjee’s imagination. Neither is it a political ploy to target the regime. It is a matter of fact which the Union government has vehemently denied from time to time.

Citizens for Justice and Peace has analysed this toxic cocktail of CAA-NRC-NPR in January 2020 when the debate on CAA was boiling (which later subdued due to COVID-19 pandemic). The analysis brought forth how this will affect not just the Muslim community but the marginalised communities at large. The detailed analysis may be read here.

How NPR was the first step towards a nation-wide NRC was clearly explained on the basis of existing legal provisions by CJP in this article, in the form of FAQs. The FAQs explain how as per the preparation methodology prescribed in Citizenship (Registration of Citizen & Issue of NC) Rules 2003, it is from the NPR that data will be taken for Updation in the Local Register of Indian Citizen (i.e. part of NRC) after Scrutiny and Verification.

The exercise of NRC in Assam whereby the (supposedly) final list was released in August 2019 left a population of 1.3 crore impoverished and socially disbarred by being interminably denied citizenship. The process of NRC has not yet culminated in Assam as there has been alot of back and forth on the finality of the August 2019 NRC thus leaving the status of citizenship of those excluded from that list in limbo as their status of citizenship has not been determined and they have no means to prove the same unless official process is started by the concerned authorities in the state. Looking at the state of the residents of Assam, the rest of the country feared its repercussions on them and hence, the opposition to CAA-NRC-NPR was so strong.

West Bengal, under Banerjee has been the loudest voice against CAA and the Centre’s intention of bringing in NRC through NPR.

Related:

NPR-NRC – FAQs

CAA-NPR-NRC: The Law Is Being Weaponised Against …

Why the CAA+NPR+NRC is a toxic cocktail for everyone

The post Identifying fake Aadhaar, a plot to bring in CAA-NRC? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has “requested” another six-month extension to frame the rules under the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) – making this the seventh similar extension, The Hindu has reported.

The CAA was passed by both Houses of parliament at the end 0f 2019, amidst widespread nationwide protests. For the first time, this law made citizenship directly correlated to a person’s religion. Under the CAA, non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 are eligible for fast-track Indian citizenship.

However, while without the rules being framed, the Act cannot be implemented, Citizens for Justice and Peace  had probed and analysed the MHA annual report (2021-2022) that revealed that it has “delegated powers under the CAA to grant citizenship under the controversial 2019 amendment.

In November 2022, Union home minister Amit Shah had said that the rules were being “formulated” and there had been a delay because of the pandemic. That was in Parliament, documents in the MHA Annual Report showed otherwise. Before that, in August, he had said that the law would be implemented once the COVID-19 vaccination drive had been completed.

The CAA 2019 was passed in haste through the Lok Sabha on December 10, 2019 and in the Rajya Sabha two days later after it was introduced in the upper house by Shah. The gazetted notification declaring the amendment to be a law was issued on December 12, 2019. The move drew heavy criticism from politicians and citizens alike for ostensibly singling out Muslims and excluding them from its purview. Protests spontaneously broke out in Delhi and the first violent repressive action by the state was the police action inside the Jamia Milia University in the nation’s capital on December 15. A series of protests followed thereafter, leading to more and more repression. The Delhi police falls under the MHA.

The Act aims to provide citizenship to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians purportedly fleeing persecution from India’s Muslim-majority neighbours; namely, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The notable absence of Muslims from the provisions of the legislation, irrespective of whether or not they are being persecuted in their countries, as well as the unconstitutional nature of the legislation when coupled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) had drawn widespread protests from thousands of citizens across the country. Despite the protests and violence that ensued, the government notified the law in January 2020. Yet, the rules of the law are still to be framed, despite three years having passed.

Contrary to the HM’s recent claims, the CJP reports reveals how the Ministry of Home Affairs in its 2021-22 Annual Report has revealed that it has delegated powers under Citizenship Act to grant citizenship under the controversial 2019 amendment. Delegated powers have been “given” to Collectors of 13 more districts and Home Secretaries of 2 more states. With this, Collectors of 29 districts and Home Secretaries of 9 States have been authorized to grant citizenship in respect of foreigners belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, and Christian or Parsi community from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The report states, “The delegation will speed up the process of granting Indian citizenship to aforesaid category of migrants as the decision would be taken at local level.”

The report states that from April 1, 2021 to December 31 2021, a total of 1414 citizenship certificates have been granted by all authorities including this Ministry. Out of this, 1120 were granted by registration under section 5 and 294 were granted by naturalisation under section 6 of the Citizenship Act. These notifications clearly invoke the 2019 amendments.

They clearly direct that “the Central Government hereby directs that powers exercisable by it, for registration as a citizen of India under section 5, or for grant of certificate of naturalisation under section 6, of the Citizenship Act, 1955, in respect of any person belonging to minority community in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians (hereinafter referred to as “the applicant”), residing in the districts mentioned.

Despite these claims in the annual report, the Union government’s failure to frame the rules has come under scrutiny in light of certain developments in the intervening years; for instance, the fact that reportedly around 800 Pakistanis Hindus were forced to return to their home country the year before, in 2021, because they were unable to get citizenship.

Facing religious persecution in Pakistan, these Hindu migrants sought Indian citizenship through a fast-tracked route through an online citizenship portal. However, the notifications for this fast-tracked citizenship were made under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and not the CAA because the rules had not been framed.

Further, following the attack on a Gurudwara that also led to a Sikh Pakistani being killed in Kabul, Afhganistan last year, it also became apparent that that around a hundred Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan had been awaiting approval for electronic visas to India despite applying for them before the Taliban took over the country.

Following the incident, and the deceased’s widow speaking to the media about his inability to obtain the visa, the Indian government granted what was termed as ‘priority to the hundred-odd Hindus and Sikhs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s letter to Afgan Sikhs following the incident made no reference to the CAA; an Act which, ostensibly, sought to avoid just such a situation by bringing back persecuted non-Muslims to India.

At the time of the widespread nationwide protests against the discriminatory provisions of the CAA 2019, amendments, civil rights groups and jurists had pointed out how the religious demarcation (read exclusion) of one section of India’s minorities (Muslims) from fast-tracked citizenship by naturalisation was hit by Articles 14, 15.16 and 21 of the Indian Constitution. Excluding Ahmadiyas or non-believers who also suffer persecution in Pakistan, or minorities like Tamil Hindus from Sri Lanka or Rohingyas from Myaanmaar further cemented discriminatory basis within Indian citizenship law.

Related:

Is CAA 2019 stealthily making its way into our lives?

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS) ABOUT THE CAB/CAA 2019

WHO IS AN INDIAN? (ENGLISH)

CITIZENSHIP LAWS IN INDIA – FAQS

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